France's Hollande says recovery will lead to lower taxes: paper

French President Francois Hollande pauses as he attends a news conference at the Elysee Palace in Paris, April 29, 2014. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer

PARIS (Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande expects an economic recovery that will allow the government to lower taxes, a newspaper reported him as saying on Sunday.

“The reform effort is not over yet, but the economic recovery is arriving. This phase will lead to stronger growth, better competitiveness and a redistribution of purchasing power via lower taxes,” Journal du Dimanche quoted Hollande as saying.

Hollande, elected for a five-year term in May 2012, said “we have entered the second phase of my term”.

During the election campaign, Hollande pledged to focus in the early years of his mandate on restoring France’s finances before working to improve households’ purchasing power once a lower budget deficit was on track.

On Tuesday, parliament approved a 50 billion euro deficit reduction plan that aims to cut France’s public deficit to the European Union’s ceiling of 3 percent of GDP by 2015.

“What I have learned is that France matters when its accounts are in good shape,” the paper quoted Hollande saying.

Reporting by Emmanuel Jarry and Geert De Clercq; Editing by Catherine Evans